Icac inquiry raises questions over whether taxpayer funds were used in alleged illegal political donations

Icac is investigating donations made by Catholic Schools NSW to the Liberal party. Photograph: Bianca De Marchi/AAP View image in fullscreen Icac is investigating donations made by Catholic Schools NSW to the Liberal party. Photograph: Bianca De Marchi/AAP Icac inquiry raises questions over whether taxpayer funds were used in alleged illegal political donations Catholic Schools NSW’s alleged donations to Liberal party show the need to ensure public money is spent for approved purposes, expert says Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast An education funding expert says alleged donations by Catholic Schools NSW to the Liberal party, under investigation by the state corruption watchdog, show governments need to check taxpayer funding was “being spent according to its purposes” and not funnelled into political donations. The Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) is investigating allegations that political donations were made by Catholic Schools NSW “in amounts that were not declared and exceeded applicable donation caps”. It is alleged the donations were arranged and approved by the Catholic Schools NSW chief executive, Dallas McInerney, to recruit or renew members to the party – a practice known as “branch stacking”. Catholic Schools NSW is the governing body for nearly 600 schools. The Hills were alive with a NSW Liberal factional war – now the corruption watchdog is sniffing around Read more Trevor Cobbold, the convenor of the advocacy group Save our Schools and a former Productivity Commission economist, said the commonwealth and state governments should act alongside the Icac investigation “in the face of very serious allegations” to jointly audit Catholic Schools NSW. Cobbold said nearly 80% of funding for Catholic schools comes from federal and state funding, or around $3.8bn in 2024. As a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), it would be at risk of losing its charitable status and tax exemptions if it is found to have a “disqualifying political purpose”. “The commonwealth department of education, the federal minister for education, and the New South Wales minister for education can’t stand aside as if they are uninterested observers,” Cobbold said. “They have specific responsibilities that are not those of Icac … to ensure that public money is being spent according to its purposes and in order to do that they need to have a joint audit of the books of Catholic Schools NSW.” “It does raise broader issues about how school organisations account for taxpayer funding.” Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email Chris Bonnor, a former president of the NSW Secondary Principals Council and the author of Waiting for Gonski: How Australia failed its schools, said the allegations “call for much more stringent monitoring of compliance” by private schools with regulations. “Along with unequal obligations on the publi